Welcome to the Education Commission of the States' High School Database

---

STEM

Why this issue matters

• Recruiting highly qualified secondary teachers in the STEM subjects has proven difficult in many states.
• Targeted professional development opportunities allow STEM teachers to network and to share effective means for improving achievement in the STEM subjects.
• Internship and mentoring programs can foster student interest in STEM fields, and it provides them with valuable hands-on experience.
• Members of certain ethnic minority groups and women have been historically underrepresented among those who earn STEM degrees and who then subsequently go on to careers in the STEM fields.
• Quality classes in the STEM subjects can be expensive, and districts with high concentrations of low-income students may have difficulty providing these opportunities without state aid.

Why our methodology matters

• Primary resources: ECS draws its information primarily from state statute, rules and regulations, recently enacted legislation, executive orders and other primary source documents.
• As needed, policies (and their interpretation) are confirmed with state-level staff.
• We believe that policy helps institutionalize practice.
• Our goal is to document where the underlying authority lies, and where consensus has been strong enough to adopt a common approach.

Related ECS products

• Graduation Requirements database
• High School-Level Assessment database
• Policy brief: What Policymakers Need to Know About the Cost of Implementing Lab-Based Science Course Requirements
• StateNote: Aligned to the Research: Science and Mathematics Graduation Requirements
• StateNote: Recent State STEM Initiatives
• StateNote: Mathematics and Science Education in the States
• StateNote: Mathematics Graduation Requirements: Classes 2006 Through 2011
• StateNote: Science Graduation Requirements: Classes 2006 Through 2011
• Highlights: A Synthesis of Recommendations for Improving U.S. Science and Mathematics Education
• STEM: Recent state policies/activites database and issue site
• Mathematics: Recent state policies/activities database and issue site
• Science: Recent state policies/activities database and issue site

Staff contact:
Kyle Zinth, assistant policy analyst
303.299.3673
kzinth@ecs.org

A report containing all information available in the STEM database for a single state. Select States and Data Points: Choose the states and data points to appear in a personalized report.

STEM (all data points for all states) State recruitment efforts for STEM teachers State offers or requires targeted professional development for STEM teachers State support for pre-AP alignment programs State requires or makes available end-of-course exams in STEM disciplines State support for STEM mentoring and real work internship programs for students State-level dual enrollment/early college/middle college programs focused on STEM disciplines State support for afterschool/ELO programs in STEM (such as robotics, science Olympiad, INTEL) that focus on supporting student interest in STEM State offers college readiness assessments in math and/or science State has adopted rigorous graduation requirements in math and science for all students State programs targeted at STEM achievement among female, low-income and minority students

__________________________________________________________

Use the diagram below to view the components of state-level high school reform, and their relationship to one another (the links shown in grey are coming soon).

Comments? Questions? Contact Jennifer Dounay at 303.299.3689 or jdounay@ecs.org.